Technology

20.12.2012

How it all started

I started my work on M/S Viking Grace, which was back then sales project P-70173, in March 2009. Our sales department was in the opinion that Viking Line should be interested in a newbuilding and we began to develop ideas for a new generation cruise ferry. We developed first sketches and presented those to Viking Line in summer 2009. Our target was to create a ship concept that would enable the passengers to experience the extraordinary archipelago like never before, while keeping some of the proven features.

I was in the role of naval architect until the contract and about four months after that, the most hectic part of the basic design phase. As the naval architect, my task in the ship’s design was to see to that all the bits and pieces fall into right places and the ship is technically feasible. I was shipyard’s main responsible for the specification and general arrangement, the technical part of the shipbuilding contract.

From plans to reality

Even though the ship is somewhat different, it is still possible to see several of the original ideas. But that’s the way it goes; we at the yard do not know the specific needs of the operator and a successful ship must be developed together. Viking Line’s project development team, led by Kari Granberg and Taru Kauppinen, collected all the nice things and ideas into one package and Viking Line gave that to the bidding shipyards in January 2010. After that round my task was to create a ship that would have the required capacity and as much of the desired features as possible in a realistic envelope. In our naval architecture department we created a slightly smaller ship respecting the physics and economics as well as satisfying our client’s wishes. When Viking Line indicated they were satisfied with the proposed ship, we took specialists from our various design departments to develop the project further. Since then it has been more or less a converging project, with only minor changes after the contract.

Of course there was the dilemma with the fuel and machinery. Viking Line wanted to fulfil all known future emission reduction requirements, so we made a huge amount of machinery studies to compare and evaluate the possibilities. It was concluded that the LNG-alternative based on the cruise ship type power plant principle was the most reliable and flexible in operation. We also visited some existing gas operated ships, such as offshore supply vessels and smaller road ferries, and got ourselves convinced the technology was mature enough to be installed in a big passenger ship on such a dynamic route.

Feelings and thoughts today

Looking back I can think of a couple of things we could improve – there is always room for improvement. But overall it’s an outstanding piece of naval architecture and shipbuilding we have here at our berth. M/S Viking Grace is the result of a team effort and not least because of the good cooperation we have had with Viking Line’s project team. We at the shipyard are extremely happy to have one of our babies here in the Baltic, usually they are taken to remote locations. We are proud to be able to show our friends and countrymen what we are capable of.

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About Viking Line

In 1959 first genuine Baltic Sea car ferry, the S/S Viking, was placed in traffic between the Finnish mainland, the Åland Islands and Sweden. This was the first phase of an almost revolutionary expansion in ferry communications. More than 50 vessels have sailed in the fleets of the Viking Ship companies, and over 175 million passengers have travelled with the company’s vessels since the start. Today Viking Line has seven vessels in traffic on the Baltic Sea serving more than 6,4 million passengers per year. Operations include passenger services, recreation and cargo carrier services. The number of employees is approximately 3,000. The company was listed on Helsinki Stock exchange in 1995.